Christmas came early for Colin Critchley: At the ripe old age of 10, he’s sharing a stage with his heroes — Gandalf, the wise wizard of “The Lord of the Rings,” and Prof. Charles Xavier, the bald brainiac of “X-Men.”
That’s Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart to you. Or, as Colin now knows them, Ian and Patrick — his new best friends, whose jokey Instagrams he shares with his 25 followers on Twitter.
“I feel I’m the luckiest kid on Earth!” the cheery fourth-grader says. “Where do I go from here? I mean, I’m working with these guys!”
He and “these guys” are in Broadway’s “Waiting for Godot,” where Colin alternates with Aidan Gemme, also 10, in the role of Boy — a beacon of hope in Samuel Beckett’s otherwise barren landscape.
Meanwhile, in another Beckett play — “All That Fall,” at 
off-Broadway’s 59E59 Theaters — 11-year-old Liam Thrift finds it “extremely amazing” to be working alongside Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon. Or, as most people know him, Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts.
“I’ve seen all the Harry Potter films, and I really liked the choices he made,” says Liam, a savvy San Francisco native.
“Michael does remind me of Dumbledore, but in this play it’s kind of hard to recognize him,” he adds. “He’s always very nice backstage before the show — he always makes people laugh. You can tell he tries to have a lot of fun.”
All three boys — whose résumés include stints in Broadway’s “Kinky Boots” and “Mary Poppins,” plus a host of regional productions — say it’s thrilling to watch great actors do their thing, close up.
“He’s very big on stage,” observes Liam, who, as a poor boy named Jerry, leads Gambon’s blind Mr. Rooney around the stage. “How he uses his hands is amazing! It’s how he shows his emotions, and how he feels about the other person.”
Over at “Godot,” Aidan’s getting an eyeful of two other pros in action.
“It doesn’t feel like they’re acting at all,” the fifth-grader says. “They’re just there, and Ian and Patrick are gone — their characters are floating around and you’re seeing just them. It’s an amazing process to watch.”
He and Colin say their hearts stopped when they met the sirs at their first rehearsal, but “they were just so nice,” Aidan says. “It doesn’t feel like they’re humongous stars — they’re just regular people who have an absurd amount of amazing talent . . .”
“During rehearsal, Ian grabbed the collar of our shirts,” he recalls. “And he’s such a gentle, nice guy. He kept asking us over and over, ‘Does it hurt? Does it hurt? Does it hurt?’ and we kept saying, ‘No, no, no. Do your job.’ ”
Did you really tell Sir Ian to do his job? “Well, not literally.”
Of the two knights of the British Empire, McKellen is the funnier one, the boys say. “When he tells us jokes, he has a straight face, which makes the joke even more funny,” Colin says.
Both stars make a point of visiting the boys’ dressing room before each show, and asking them how their day was. The “X-Men” duo — enemies on film, best friends in real life — recently joined in singing “Happy Birthday” to Colin.
Theatergoers, it seems, are less thoughtful, especially the ones who gather by the Cort Theater’s stage door after each show.
“I go out and there’s all these people waiting to get my — well, Patrick and Ian’s autographs,” Colin says. “Sometimes I’m standing there waiting to sign [their Playbills], and it’s an awkward moment — the person’s like, ‘Good job!’ and I move on.”
So where do they go from here?
“I’d like to have a successful career just like them, but I also want to be a triple threat, like Hugh Jackman,” says Colin, who tap-dances and sings. “Actually, I just met him!”
And Aidan?
“I want to go to a very good school and keep pursuing my acting career,” he says. “That, or play baseball.”